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Wisconsin’s Walker Leads Poll As Union Bosses Burn Through Members’ Money

Following Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s reforming his state’s collective bargaining laws and breaking the stranglehold unions held on taxpayers (saving them $476 million so far), union bosses across the country laid siege on the  dairy state’s capitol and declared war on Walker and his fellow Republicans.

In 2011, union bosses and other outside groups spent tens of millions of dollars in a failed attempt to recall six Republican state senators and are spending millions more now trying to recall Scott Walker.

The millions union bosses are now spending—paid for by union members throughout the country—has Democrats getting nervous that the money spent might strain union coffers too much prior to the November elections.

According to the Hill:

Unions have made ousting Walker a top priority and are poised to spend heavily in Wisconsin. But Democratic strategists and some senior political experts within the labor movement believe the initiative should have been launched before the November presidential election.

Labor officials are also looking at investing resources in Indiana, a red-leaning state, to battle controversial right-to-work legislation backed by Gov. Mitch Daniels (R).

But the Wisconsin fight will consume far more resources. This is a stomach-churning prospect for Democrats and their allies because the labor expenditures could come just months before the general election, when money will be needed for more important battlegrounds such as Ohio and Florida.

As union bosses continue to pour money into Wisconsin, union members nationwide may begin to wonder if, in fact that is money well spent—especially since, Scott Walker’s poll numbers are still ahead of his (potential) Democratic rivals.

According to a new Marquette Law School poll the governor leads Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, a likely candidate, 50 percent to 44 percent. He leads former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, the only declared Democratic candidate, 49 percent to 42 percent margin, former Rep. David Obey 49 percent to 43 percent and state Sen. Tim Cullen 50 percent to 40 percent.

After a year of union and left-wing attacks, most Wisconsinites know the issues well by now. As a result, as union bosses dump more and more money that would otherwise be earmarked for other Democrat races, it is not likely to affect Walker’s poll numbers too dramatically, which may prove to be a win-win for Republicans around the country and in Wisconsin.

__________________

“Socialism has no place in the hearts of those who would secure the fight for freedom and preserve democracy.” Samuel Gompers, American Federation of Labor, 1918

Cross-posted at LaborUnionReport.com

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COMMENTS

  • freemanja1991

    do we know if the state senators that are up for recalls will be up for election in the old or redistricted districts. I believe there was a law suit about this.

    • zachv

      I don’t remember hearing about whether or not there was a decision. Google proved useless as well.

      • freemanja1991

        that verdict come in?

  • DerKrieger

    I think they should double the dues of their members to cover as many races as possible. Heck, triple ‘em! Thos GOP rat basta@&$ need to be defeated.

    I’d love to see how the rank and file would react if the membership squeezed them for more money for Leftists.

    • carolina

      The IN Legislature just passed “no mandatory dues” and Daniels can sign before the Super Bowl.
      Poor union thugs are getting poorer by the day. :-)

      • edintexas

        I believe that only the House has passed the bill so far. While the Republicans have a majority in the Senate, we know what can happen when the Democrats panic and flee to stop a vote. Is there enough of a Republican majority in the Indiana Senate to hold a vote whether the Democrats are there, or not?

    • carolina

      The IN Legislature just passed “no mandatory dues” and Daniels can sign before the Super Bowl.
      Poor union thugs are getting poorer by the day. :-)

  • michaelbowler

    If these are legitimate, Walker has a problem, if they are legit.
    Incumbents need to be over 50% to be winners in a good poll.

    • horizonscanner

      Under Looter conditions, people will lie with knee-jerk self-protection until they get inside voting places. Look for landslide conditions anti DemKrat RadLib BiGot Z-King SEIU ZiNa Thuggery.

    • Kyle-MI

      Sure, most of the undecideds will break against him, but he only needs a couple percent more to win. It won’t be a pretty win, but a win is a win. Considering all the garbage and hate that has been thrown at him over the past several months, he is sitting fairly good.

      The biggest concern is that he needs to win above the margin of Dem cheating, and you know the Dems are going to pull out all the stops on this. Hopefully our side is lining up GOP volunteer lawyers to keep a close eye on every polling place, especially those in Dem territories.

  • APA Guy

    Heads to the senate, where it is expected to pass…then Governor Daniels’ desk, where it is expected to be signed. NO statewide referendum attached to this bill.

    Proud to be an Indiana Hoosier and American today!

    • earlgrey

      than I long for my Indiana home.

      So happy for the state of Indiana. I wish I still lived there. Great news!

      Imagine how far the state has come. I mean wouldn’t you say Daniels has been the best Governor that state has had in many, many years.

      What is general mood in the state? People happy or unhappy?

      Looksl like things will be getting worse for Illinois and Ohio.

      • APA Guy

        The mood of the state is very, very good considering about 2/3 of the voting public approves of Right to Work. Of course, the unions and Dem reps are crying, but such is the consequence of elections. We voted overwhelmingly Republican in 2010 and 2011…the consequence is, we get more conservative public policies.

        As an aside, if our neighbors to the N, S, E and W do not want to put Right to Work in motion, we will happily take the jobs that are dying to come to the Midwest without the yoke of union cronyism :)

        • earlgrey

          How is that shaping up? I am a liittle worried about his fundraising. I have given some to his campaign, butI am not in a position to make a big difference.

          I got a mass email from Steve Forbes on Mourdock’s behalf today.

          Thanks for the update on the union bill. Very surprised that it had 2/3rd support of IN voters. I expected it to be much closer than that.

  • throwback59

    This post has made my day, thank you.

  • ihateliberals

    I know that Unions do some good things but when they advocate the changing of our government into a socialist state then I draw the line. Just as no one should be forced to join the “Kiwanis Club” (a name that just popped into my head) no one should be forced to join a union or any other organization in order to have a job. Unions have done some good things in this country but now they are all about money and the workers are just incidental and cumbersome to their goals of power. When a Union dictates where a company can and can not locate they have far over reached their boundaries and need to be stopped. Unions and their inflexibilities have driven many large global companies off-shore. Unions would have a much better reputation if they would reduce the force and strong arm tactics. Work with big business instead of against it.

    God Speed to Governor Walker and all the other officials that are standing up for the Rights of Workers.

  • mkozikowski

    One less to spend.

    Although I am extremely happy that Gov. Walker is winning. The nation needs this type of positive, Constitutional stand as we view the dark void of “Utopia”.

    But I am torn thinking about the Union Fodder (the line worker) who is really getting hurt here. They are blindly rooting for their elephant in this Monstrous battle, and they are not realizing that the grass upon which they stand is ready to be trampled.
    Their pensions, raining day funds, legal funds, etc are being pissed away by a Tyrant which fundamentally does not have them in mind as the battle rages. They may just find out that their sacrifice is too great, and that as they approach retirement, they have nothing.

    Whatever the outcome of this battle, the Union Worker may find that they are the worse for the fight.

  • earlgrey

    I’ll send him some love today.

    I have cut back, but not cutting back on this. Not a WI resident so I can’t do much for him.

  • renny

    I have been a member of the NEA, NJEA, OCCEA, and TREA for nearly 40 years. Although retired now and my membership fees are considerably lower, I estimate I was docked c. $40,000 over the decades, virtually all of which went to Dem. politics.

    The Beck decision said years ago that unions cannot uses members dues for politics the members disagree with but it’s a federal law and you have to go to fed. court to enforce it.

    Recently, the NJEA is pushing $10,000,000 against Christie, but his positives are well over 50% no matter what the union does, and he has responded by not speaking to the pres. who makes nearly $500,000 annually with benefits and does nothing for individual classrooms or students.

    The more unions pour into WI, the less they will have in the general election. I do not know how the polls reflect the true situation in the state, but Walker;s laws evidently have helped improve the budgets of many schools districts and towns, and I would think these positive changes would have influence on the decisions of even the last-minute undecideds.

  • blackhawk

    There should be rules forbidding unions from spending dues $$$ for their political gain.
    Maybe Jimmy Hoffa is alive and still screwing his members.

    • johnt

      He’s doing the screwing now.

  • bob570

    A friend of mine wrote a book some thirty odd years ago about who really constituted the real Special Interest groups in the Country. His number one group surprise, surprise, was Politicians themselves. The second group were Government Bureaucrats, who are through their Unions attacking Governor Walker. The Politicians are mostly after Power, while the Bureaucrats are out for our Tax Dollars. They make Wall Street Bankers look like Boy Scouts.

  • BA Cyclone

    is all that union dues/PAC money getting flushed down a toilet in Madison that will merely reaffirm Walker’s mandate.

    We can hope! The polls are encouraging, but as they say in sports, there is a lot of green between here and there.

  • BA Cyclone

    is all that union dues/PAC money getting flushed down a toilet in Madison that will merely reaffirm Walker’s mandate.

    We can hope! The polls are encouraging, but as they say in sports, there is a lot of green between here and there.

  • TexasTami

    The fight for Wisconsin–politically, socially, economically, spiritually– is foreshadowing the fight for this country in November. Socialism, overspending, lies, individual rights, thugs in control of government which segues nicely into union control, pensions, budgeting, high taxes, living within your means, corruption–you name it, it applies in Wisconsin. We can’t afford to lose the Battle for Wisconsin–and freedom. And if we do win in Wisconsin, it’ll be a shot in the arm for freedom/Constitution-loving Americans to continue the fight for this country in November.

  • mizzou1776

    Conservatives must rally & show union scum we can make flash funds rain when they target our leaders. Every dollar we donate equals five of their coerced loot. Let’s make them suffer…& force the Jimmy Jr.’s of the world to squander resources & stick to what they do best: shaking down their “members”!

  • sbm1

    I mean ones who have moderate expenses, and who save thier members dues for rainy days, and not thinking they can leverage it with political spending to get the government to put in policies to cover the rainy days.

    I mean in the very old days guilds pooled that money as a type of insurance policy to provide for widows and orphans of people injured or killed doing difficult work.

    Are there no unions out there that aren’t spending politically, but putting the money in rainy day funds, to assist in retraining for laid off members, having adequate strike funds, and maybe some backup pension money…and dare it be possible, administrative costs under 10% of dues collected?

    If there is a good one out there, that understands that it is there for the good of its members, and not as a “political instrument” then it woudl be nice to at least hear about it.

  • celador2

    What would recallers do differently than Governor Scott Walker?

    They would restore the bargaining Walker removed after a 15 month stand off with Jim Doyle over a contract. OK then what?
    Will they raise taxes and grow spending?

    Wisconsin pays 7.75% personal and 5.5 sales tax as it is. Jim Doyle did raise taxes a billion,. Walker said no to tax hikes to balance budgets . Walker froze property taxes.

    If Scott Walker can keep the focus on issues that elected him by a five point spread Nov 2010 he will win a recall. The main issue is who will pay for the new taxes that will soon come our way if we remove the governor we elected Nov 2010 without letting him do his job of restoring fiscal soundness. As he points out, he promised he would. .

    Will the recallers new governor be worth it?

    .

  • giatny

    “Fairness” seems to be a favorite word of the lefties – except when it might apply to them. The problem with the word is always who gets to define “fair”. I happen to think, in the absence of provable acts of malfeasance, an elected official should serve the full term to which he was elected. Otherwise it is
    a repudiation of the rights of all those
    who elected him. Camping out in
    another state to prevent an unfavorable
    vote does not meet my definition of
    democracy or honor. Apparently in WI the parameters for recalls are a little looser but definitely not wiser.

  • DVPTEXFLA

    Governor Walker and the Republican legislators have done some heavy lifting. They are leaders and are demonstrating what it means tobe careful with the tax payer’s money.

  • http://travismonitor.blogspot.com Freedoms Truth

    In the wake of the Gabbie Giffords shooting, I was under the impression such thoughtless and dreadfully inappropriate images and metaphors were verboten.

  • dlg00

    He did what he promised to do, and it shows that we can win the war with conservative principles.

    Teachers Union=Egg on face

  • Kyle-MI

    Although they are a little tight for comfort. The real indicator will be what direction the polls go.

  • http://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com nathanalbright

    …when Conservatives do it.

  • johnt

    Recall some of the verbiage and violence of the past year or two.
    In any case moderation is only for us,

  • zachv

    The SotS address was tonight. I’m sure there’s going to be some polling done in the next few days. We’ll see how the move!

    Here’s the PDF of Marquette Law School’s survey.

    https://law.marquette.edu/poll/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/MLSPJanToplines.pdf

  • celador2

    Recall is serious given the number of signature . Walker ,the Lt governor and four more state senators face recall if names are verified After the last six recalls voters should have fatigue. I hope fatigue is not voter indifference to Walker’s fate! For Walker supporters to stay home and recallers vote is a nightmare. Vote NO to recall or for Walker.

    The last poll I saw by an outfit maybe PPP who polled in the spring showed the fall poll supportive of recall unlike the spring where recall was not favored. The Marquette poll is on match ups with named opponents and. assumes a YES recall vote. I hope NO to recall wins.
    .
    Recallers have high enthusiasm to vote. Recallers are professionals at getting out the vote. Recallers may be outnumbered but in the end who votes is what determines the winner.

    Will there be absentee voting in the recall?
    The absentee voting arena is a whole new ballgame and worries me.